Driver injured at deadly intersection near Carberry calls for highway upgrades

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This article was published 07/09/2023 (775 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A driver seriously injured in a separate crash at the same Carberry-area intersection where 17 people were killed in a collision wants the province to redesign the crossing to improve safety.

The 33-year-old man was already of the belief a cloverleaf interchange, while expensive, would prevent crashes at the Trans-Canada and Highway 5 before the July 31 wreck that killed his pet dachshund, Dexter.

“It would be nice to see the province stop putting a Band-Aid on the problem and actually fix the problem,” said the man, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. “Too many people have already lost their lives.”

The Municipality of Oakland-Wawanesa resident was driving south on Highway 5 when his new Dodge Ram 3500 collided with a Dodge Journey SUV shortly after 4:30 p.m.

He said he checked for approaching vehicles, but he didn’t see the SUV due to a blind spot probably caused by his truck’s windshield frame, or A-pillar.

“I didn’t see that orange-coloured Journey at all, or I wouldn’t have gone through,” he said.

He received a ticket under the Highway Traffic Act accusing him of proceeding through the at-grade intersection before it was safe. He hasn’t decided if he will pay the $174 fine or fight it.

The man is waiting to receive the RCMP’s final report to learn more about what led to the crash just north of Carberry.

He believes he’s lucky to be alive.

“If I wasn’t wearing the seatbelt, I’d probably be dead.”

“If I wasn’t wearing the seatbelt, I’d probably be dead.”

The man said he stopped at a stop sign on Highway 5, crossed the Trans-Canada’s westbound lanes when it was safe and waited in the median, which he described as too narrow, while an eastbound car passed.

A water truck, also eastbound, was approaching in a turning lane to head north on Highway 5.

The man said he thought it was safe to enter the eastbound lanes.

“From what (the RCMP) figure, the Dodge Journey would have been in my blind spot in the pillar of my vehicle or that great big sign at the intersection,” he said, referring to a “wrong way” sign posted in the median. “I figure it was my truck pillar.”

He said police told him blind spots are a common occurrence for drivers passing through the intersection. The crash happened six weeks after a southbound mini-bus with 25 people, mostly seniors from the Dauphin area, collided with an eastbound tractor-trailer June 15.

Seventeen bus passengers died at the scene or in hospital.

Of the eight survivors, one remained in hospital Wednesday. The patient was in stable condition, a Shared Health spokesman said.

RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel confirmed Wednesday the mini-bus driver remains in hospital and has yet to be interviewed by investigators.

Police are attempting to determine if charges are warranted.

“Our forensic collision reconstructionists are highly trained specialists who look at angles, blind spots, speed, environmental factors, etc., and they put all that information together to help the investigators determine what happened,” Seel wrote in an email. “We are still in the process.”

The man involved in the July 31 crash said the SUV crashed into the passenger side of his truck, which then rolled and collided with a vehicle stopped at the northbound stop sign on Highway 5.

After his truck came to a rest upside down, he unbuckled his seatbelt, kicked out a window and crawled out.

He was on his way home from work with his two dogs — Dexter and Diesel, an 11-year-old golden retriever mix — which were thrown from the truck.

Diesel survived with a scratch to the back of her neck.

The man suffered a shoulder injury, head and neck stiffness, and cuts. He is undergoing physiotherapy and was off work for weeks.

At the time, police said three people were taken to hospital with injuries that appeared to be serious.

The driver of the truck intends to seek counselling.

“The (collision) itself hasn’t bothered me, but the loss of Dexter has. You always have those what-ifs,” he said. “That’s the worst part. I can’t sleep at night. They’re not just dogs. They’re family.”

“The (collision) itself hasn’t bothered me, but the loss of Dexter has… I can’t sleep at night. They’re not just dogs. They’re family.”

Dexter, a rescue dog adopted three years ago, accompanied him to work every day.

After the crashes, the Manitoba government refreshed rumble strips and repainted lines at the intersection. It said advance warning signs indicating the busy crossing would be installed thereafter.

An internal review by the province and an external safety analysis by engineering firm WSP Canada Inc. are ongoing. Both were launched in response to the June mass-casualty crash.

The Free Press asked Manitoba’s main political parties if they would commit to redesigning the intersection, if they win the Oct. 3 provincial election.

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The incumbent Tories and NDP said they would consider recommendations from the ongoing reviews.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said his party would make strategic and safe infrastructure a priority.

More than 3,200 people have signed an online petition, started in July by the Town of Carberry, which calls for a long-term plan to improve safety at the “extremely dangerous” intersection.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.